No Rules + Poor Parenting= Failure

The first thought that comes to me after reviewing this study is that the usage of media can be limited simply by increasing parent/family involvement in how Generation M2 use media. Times have changed drastically since I was a child. I was literally yelled at when i asked for a cell phone at the age of fourteen. Nowadays, children ten to thirteen years old are “texting too much.” Maybe my family was too strict on me, but I must say that when my sixteenth birthday came around, it wasn’t a car that I was happy to receive; it was a cell phone. I earned that cell phone through hard work and good grades.

What bothers me about the Kaiser Study is that there seems to be a question of “Why the children of Generation M2 spend so much time submerged in television, video games and other forms of media?” If they are so worried about how much media consumption children receive on a daily basis, then they should have a parenting seminar. It seems as though parents have forgotten how to enforce rules within their homes.

All the blame can be put on the parents. I believe that if parents would monitor their children’s usage of technology, whether it is internet or video games, then the youth would not be suffering intellectually. In addition, the reliance on media would be minimized. Soon enough it is going to be too late to enforce rules regarding the monitoring of technology usage because children will believe that it is a right not a privilege. As time continues to go on parents will begin to reprimand their children less in spite of the way that their parents raised them. If parents are not going to enforce rules on their children, then this generation will have to learn the hard way.

I’ve learned that once I log onto Facebook, homework is no longer a priority. I had to learn the hard way that answering one text while doing homework can easily become an entire conversation. I now force myself to stay away from Facebook and the internet in general, unless it is required for research. No one was there to tell me that too much of a good thing could be bad for me, so I had to teach myself.

Ultimately, I don’t believe that media usage is bad for children 8-18 years of age. The main issue that I have is that it is not moderated enough by a parent/guardian. Studies have shown that the latest generation is very technically advanced and that comes from listening to music and surfing the web etcetera. After hearing what these said kids have to say, I understand that multi-media tasking is something that they consider the ‘norm’. They don’t seem to have ever had it brought to their attention that too much media is bad for them.

These children are suffering. Their grades are suffering and their future children are going to suffer if these increasing trends in media use persist. The main consequence of being a part of Generation M2 is failure. Until parents see that it is the time spent texting and the hours spent playing video games that are causing failing grades, Generation M2 will fail.